1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to self-expanding fasteners, which will not pull out of holes and more particularly for hanging pipe or other items inside buildings from overhead members.
2. Description of the Related Art
Plumbers, electricians, mechanical contractors, sprinkler fitters and maintenance personnel often have to hang pipe, conduit, cabling, ducting, light fixtures and various other items from structural supports such as ceilings, thin metal decking, roof decking, beams, Z purlin, bar joist or other truss materials.
Specialty brackets must be employed or holes must be drilled in the material and a mounting plate or bracket bolted in place with nuts, bolts, or screws to support a hanger therefrom. Often times access to the top or backside of the material may be restricted making use of backing nuts difficult or impossible to incorporate. These methods either use multiple installation steps with several parts being installed separately, or have limitations on the ease of installation and involve parts, which can be stripped, over torqued or otherwise compromised during or after installation.
Additionally, the space required by various mechanical systems incorporated in most buildings hinders and often prohibits the worker from easily reaching the support from which the hanger is to be attached. This space limitation combined with multi-step processes for attaching the hanger such as drilling a hole, placing a back nut over the hole and turning in a bolt while balancing on a ladder is difficult, time consuming, dangerous and expensive.
Further the strength and integrity of the fastening connection must be calibrated and known for building inspection and end product integrity. Some methods used cannot guarantee the strength of the connection, due to base material limitations, thickness of the various building materials employed in today's building practices and installer error.